ISciences Open Science Portfolio
Advancing Earth Science Research Through Open Tools and Education
ISciences
Who We Are
- FOSS Focused Research and technology firm based in Burlington, VT
- Specializing in geospatial analytics and applied statistical modeling
- Focus on water resources, political instability environmental monitoring, and risk assessment
- Small team of scientists, engineers, and developers
What We Do
- Partner with agencies including NASA, NOAA, USACE, intelligence
- Develop water security monitoring systems (WSIM)
- Develop open source software, packages, and educational materials
- Support decision-making through data-driven insights
Broader Benefits
- Roadmaps for access to data and tools
- Reduce barriers for learning these tool
- Enable participation from diverse stakeholders
- Solicit feeback from under-resourced communities
- Builds trust through transparency
DANTE
Data Analysis Toolbox for Environmental Research
Overview
- Collaborative open-science platform developed by USACE, ISciences, Columbia’s CIESIN, and CASE International
- Accelerates multidisciplinary environment-security applied research
- Bridges political science, social science, geography, environmental sciences, and defense communities
Access
TOPS-SCHOOL
ScienceCore Heuristics for Open Science Outcomes in Learning
Overview
- NASA-funded Open Science training curriculum
- Joint effort between CIESIN, ISciences, CUNY
- Emphasizes hands-on learning with real NASA datasets
- Cloud-based learning environment/workshops (2i2c)
- Case studies using recent environmental events
- 4 Modules: Water Module, Air Quality, Disasters, Climate and Agriculture
TOPS-SCHOOL Case Studies
nClimGrid Explorer
Interactive Climate Data Visualization Tool
- R package and Shiny web application for NOAA nClimGrid-Daily dataset
- Funded by ESIP Lab grant program
- Provides open-science tools for climate and social vulnerability analysis
exactextractr Package
High-Performance Zonal Statistics for R
Overview
- Fast and accurate zonal statistics extraction from raster data
- Orders of magnitude faster than competing methods (raster::extract, velox, ESRI, QGIS, GRASS, rasterio)
- Implements precise algorithms for area-weighted statistics
- Coverage fraction calculations for accurate area-weighted statistics
WSIM: Water Security Indicator Model
Overview
- Global water security monitoring and forecasting system
- Operating continuously since April 2011
- Monthly reports with 1-9 month lead-times
- Validated against subsequently observed data
- Regional blogs detail monthly conditions globally
Technical Approach
- Data Source: ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5)
- Resolution: Quarter-degree (upgraded from half-degree)
- Baseline Period: 1981-2020 (satellite era focus)
- Forecast Model: NOAA CFSv2 ensemble forecasts
- Composite anomaly index based on soil moisture, ET deficit, runoff, and blue water
Key Features
- Return period methodology (3-40+ year events)
- Five severity categories: abnormal to exceptional
- Depicts both deficits (red) and surpluses (blue)
- Purple shading indicates concurrent deficit/surplus
Current Status & Future
- Monthly regional blogs available
- Detailed reports available via ISciences
- Seeking: NASA INNOVATE grant funding
- Vision: Open cloud-based version for public access
- Contact for partnership opportunities
Thank You
Acknowledgments
- NASA TOPS/Open Science
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) - Columbia University
- Open Science Team and SCHOOL contributors
- Open source community contributors
All materials available under open licenses. Visit our repositories for code, data, and documentation.
